1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for dehumidifying and cooling the inside of a box such as a breaker, control, or switch box, using an electronic cooling element prepared to utilize the Peltier effect.
2. Disclosure of Prior Art
Conventional dehumidifiers for general use in the condensation of the moisture in the air using electronic cooling elements prepared to utilize the Peltier effect are designed to force moist air within a switch box to be fed into another box having an electronic cooling element, and therefore they must be equipped with pumps, intake and charging pipes. Consequently, such dehumidifiers have recognized disadvantages in that they tend to become over sized and costly.
Japanese Pat. Appln. Laid-Open Gazette 95357/1984 discloses a dehumidifier intended to remedy the above-described shortcomings. Moist air within a switch box is, according to the disclosure, caused to flow into a vent pipe by the convection current generated in between the inside of the switch box and another box having an electronic cooling element. Since neither pump nor fan is required in that case, it is possible to simplify the construction, make the apparatus compact and reduce the cost. However, the disadvantage is that such an apparatus is still too large to be installed within a small capacity control or switch box, because a cooler with cooling fins and a radiator with radiation fins and a transformer are arranged inside the dehumidifier proper. Moreover, the flow of the air caused by dehumidification from and to the box through the external dehumidifier proper will result in a lower air flow rate, thus making the dehumidifying arrangement far from being effective.
In the case of a switch box, for instance, a heating unit such as a transformer may be contained in the box and accordingly cause the temperature therein to exceed what has been predetermined because of the heating unit or solar radiation.
The inside of the switch box must be cooled in such a case but, because the air introduced into the box is warmed while it passes by the radiation fins in the conventional apparatus, there still exists inconvenience arising from the box being not effectively cooled.